The Susan G. Komen/Planned Parenthood Controversy—Explained

Officials from the Susan G. Komen Foundation released a statement today apologizing for their controversial decision to yank funds from Planned Parenthood, and confirmed that they would restore their regular donations to the organization.

"We want to apologize to the American public for recent decisions that cast doubt upon our commitment to our mission of saving women's lives," the Komen board said in a statement. "We have been distressed at the presumption that the changes made to our funding criteria were done for political reasons or to specifically penalize Planned Parenthood. They were not. We will amend the criteria to make clear that disqualifying investigations must be criminal and conclusive in nature and not political. That is what is right and fair."

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Haven't been following the story? Here's the background: Earlier this week, officials from the Susan G. Komen Foundation confirmed that they had cut off funding to Planned Parenthood. The decision shocked many people because, over the past five years, the foundation has donated money that reportedly paid for 170,000 clinical breast exams and 6,400 mammogram referrals over the past five years.

Komen said they stopped the funding due to new rules for the organization that block the support of organizations under congressional investigation (Planned Parenthood is often audited to make sure they are in compliance with government regulations). But critics of the move say the foundation cut off Planned Parenthood funding because they bowed to pressure from anti-abortion advocates, who take issue with the fact that some Planned Parenthood facilities perform abortions.

The public response has been overwhelming—thousands of women have tweeted and posted Facebook messages denouncing the Komen foundation and supporting Planned Parenthood. Officials for Planned Parenthood now say they've received more than $650,000 in donations in 24 hours, which is nearly the same amount as Komen's previous donation. Several members of Komen's national and local boards have resigned in protest.

Yesterday, Komen said their decision to cut funding had nothing to do with federal investigations. Instead, they said they were looking to support groups that offer direct breast health services like mammograms (Planned Parenthood does mammogram referrals instead of the actual test).